Archive for May, 2012

Good Morning Trials Fans !! - As the regular readers will have noticed, the site was down again early today, because I once again exceeded the band width - This is all likely because I post so many pics - another 30 plus last night of the Vintage Outlaw. - I use about 4 times the regular disc space on other websites and Bob has been trying to keep fixing the problems as we get more stuff on the site, and more people “clicking” on. - However, as Bob is leaving on a sailing trip for a few weeks, I will be limiting the amount of pics that I post, and in fact will likely delete a couple of Albums ( Odds & Sods ) so if you have something on there that you want to keep, better download today.

========================================>

The weather in the Valley is a bit soggy today, and is supposed to be the same tomorrow, but brighter for the weekend - there’s a PNTA Trial in Victoria Sat/Sun and the World Round in Japan ( Where it’s also raining)

========================================>

I chatted to Jacek again last night, about the Alberta Ryan Young School in August - the venue has been changed, and will likely be near Joffre ( not far from Red Deer) - Jacek has everything under control, and my only involvement ( as in Summerland) is in a support role, and supply a Sherco for Ryan to ride - As most people know, Ryan is the Sherco Importer for the USA, and therefore it’s only natural, that he would want to ride this brand.

=========================================>

With the Outlaw Trial now history, it’s time to plan other rides, and we have a couple of new areas we want to check out this Summer, plus we will be making a trip to Revelstoke, to help with plans for a new Trials Park in that area.

==========================================>

And a final reminder to those people who rode at Summerland over the long weekend - If you haven’t already cleaned or replaced your air filter “DO IT TODAY”

I’m a bit late posting today, - not that I was tardy getting out of bed, but because I’ve been wading through all the comments on the Trials Central forum, regarding the last British Championship Trial.

As most enthusiasts know , the ACU ( who run the sport in the UK) changed the rules this year, from stop & hop to the old rules of “NO Stop” - While I won’t go into all the reasoning for this, the one thing that is apparent, is that so far ( after two events) the majority of the riders hate the change back to the old - stop = 5 way of scoring.

A lot of posts, mention that the Importers - namely John Shirt (GG) John Lampkin (Beta) and Nigel Birkett ( Scorpa) - changed the sections after the Saturday “Practice lap” ( This practice makes no sense to me) - In fact it is also mentioned that the Clerk of the Course (Graham Jarvis) wasn’t even present at the time? - ONLY the Clerk of the Course, is allowed to change any section.
As an organizer, getting it right for the majority of riders, is a huge task ( I speak from experience) so mistakes do get made, and of course there are always the “Arm Chair critics” - who are quick to tell the World how things “Should have been done” - (We even had a couple of these at the Outlaw). - The bottom line is that it’s not easy to set up events that cater to all rider abilities, and not all venues cater to the “No Stop” rules.

The ACU have taken this action of going back to the “Old Rules” - primarily because the sections at the British Championships were getting out of hand, and dangerous, with only 6-7 riders in the top class, - their thinking was that going back to No Stop, would ease the section difficulty, with more riders signing up for the series.

Only time will tell, as to how it all works out, most Trials in the UK still run to the Stop permitted rule, (The same as we use in Canada) - The World Trials Championship, ( F.I.M) allow stopping & bopping, but penalize a rider if he touches a section marker. ( Another dumb rule)

At the end of the day, I think common sense needs to be used by the people in charge of the sport - obviously if riders aren’t happy, they won’t come back. - But after 42 years of putting on Trials in Canada, I share the concern about the future, - keeping things simple would appear to be the answer. - And it should be remembered that Trials, is not all about hurling a motorcycle at big rock walls.
==========================================>

It was a very busy Monday, with a trip to Kelowna in the morning to pick up a new Beta from the truck depot - then back home to do the pdi etc, but before that, I had to put my Alp back together after giving it a thorough servicing,.

The temperature was well into the +20’s in the valley, but that doesn’t seem to have done anything to kill off those pesky mosquitoes - however a liberal dowsing of listerine mouth wash kept them at bay ( yes it really works)

With the Beta Evo all checked over, it was time for a quick ride around the yard to make sure everything worked as it should - then it went back into the shop ready for the customer to pick up when he returns from his fire fighting gig in Northern Alberta.
=========================================>

Had a call from Jacek last night - he is now working on the next Ryan Young school, which will take place near Red Deer in August - I see that Ryan will also be doing one in Ontario the same month.

We spent the Memorial Day Sunday at home, first it was a trip to the car wash to give Babsy’s car a bath after the Summerland dust-storm - then it was time to do the same to my Beta Alp, which was also pretty dirty - surprisingly, the well protected air filter on this bike was quite clean, but it’s certainly a chore to change as you need to remove both the seat and tank to get at it.

=========================================>
Of course my day started watching the F1 race from Monaco, which wasn’t really all that exciting, with the tight circuit around the houses making passing nearly impossible. - Later it was more four wheel action, taking in the Indy 500, which was just the opposite - lots of passing and although I’m not a fan of oval racing, it was at least interesting.

=========================================>

The first Australian World Trial appears to have gone off quite well - that is if you are Spanish - Jeroni Fajardo (Beta) surprised a few, by finishing 2nd on Sunday, and James Dabill (Beta) was the “Best of the Rest” - but I still wonder how anyone can have fun at an event where they “Five” nearly every section.

=========================================>

At the USA National Trial in Colorado, Pat Smaze (Sherco) took the Saturday win on the tie break over Cody Webb (Beta), but on Sunday Webb finished some 20 points clear to take the “Overall” for the weekend. - The Williams sisters finished 1-2 in the Ladies class on their 4 stroke Montesa’s.

=========================================>

Today looks like it’s going to be hot in the Valley - I have to make a trip to Kelowna to pick up a new Beta for a Revelstoke customer - he is a helicopter pilot, and isn’t too happy as he has been sent up North to fight the wild fires, and won’t get to ride his new bike for another three weeks.

=========================================>

In the UK, the weekend Ladies Championship, saw Becky Cook win her second in a row on the TTT Beta - Emma Bristow (Ossa) finished some 20 points back, and Donna Fox (Beta) grabbed the other spot on the podium. - Cook leads the series.

Tony Bou won again in Australia on the Second day of Competition - Here is the Press Release via the FIM Web-site

Double success for Bou

27/05/12 - 11:55

A ruthless Toni Bou - Repsol Montesa made it two wins in two days at the second round of the 2012 FIM Trial World Championship, held in Mount Tarrengower, Australia. The triumph saw Bou extend his lead in the series over Adam Raga - Gas Gas to sixteen points after Raga was knocked off the podium on Sunday by Jeroni Fajardo - Beta and Takahisa Fujinami - Repsol Montesa in second and third respectively. Raga finished fourth.Bou dropped just three marks on his first lap, which set the tone for a dominating performance. His second circulation would have been even more impressive were it not for a five on section fourteen. Until then he had dabbed just twice and was in vintage form. He completed the day nine marks clear of runner-up Fajardo who, like Bou, had an excellent first lap en route to his second podium this season. Fujinami was a further twelve marks behind in third.

The course was easier on day two as organisers had modified sections to reduce their severity. A lack of rain also made the going easier. Once again a good crowd turned out to support the riders as they battled a cold wind that made conditions feel more like northern Europe than the southern hemisphere. Despite the changes Raga had an inconsistent first lap and clocked up thirty marks, from which it was impossible to recover. Lap two was much better, but the damage had already been done. Albert Cabestany’s - Sherco performance mirrored Raga’s as he completed the top five.

In the Junior division Alexandre Ferrer - Sherco demonstrated his intent once again with a superb victory over Francesc Moret - Montesa. It was the Frenchman’s fourth consecutive triumph and it saw him extend his lead in the championship to twenty-one points over Moret, his Spanish rival. Having finished fifth on Saturday Benoit Dagnicourt - Beta improved overnight to score a podium position ahead of Britain’s Jack Sheppard - Beta. New Zealand’s Jake Whitaker - Beta rounded out the top five while Pol Tarres - JotaGas was a disappointing sixth.

The podium on day two in the Youth class was identical to that of day one, with France’s Steven Coquelin - Gas Gas narrowly beating Bradley Cox - Beta to record his second win down under. There was very little in it, with just one mark separating the duelling pair. Sverre Lundevold - Beta took third place once again, the Norwegian a further two marks adrift of Cox. Kiwi Blake Fox - Gas Gas was fourth, while fellow New Zealander John Hayes - Beta was fifth.

There is no rest for the riders now as they head straight to Japan for the third round of the 2012 FIM Trial World Championship this coming weekend. Raga will travel to Motegi with revenge in mind as he attempts to narrow the gap between he and Bou in what will be the third successive two-day Grand Prix this season.

The first day of competition at the Australian World Trials Championship round is now over, and it was a convincing win for Tony Bou, (Hon) as he completely dominated the event, losing a mere 24 points, compared to runner up Adam Raga (GG) who lost 54 - Albert Cabestany (Sherco) was the third man on the podium, beating out Takahisa Fujinami (Hon) on the tie break - both losing 65 points. - 5th went to Jeroni Fajardo (Beta) with 79, 6th Dani Oliveras (GG) 105 points and 7th to James Dabill (Beta) also 105 points. - Dabill was unlucky to draw an early number and spent most of the day “Scrubbing in” the sections. - other scores were - 8th Loris Gubian 116, 9th Jack Challoner 118, 10th Michael Brown 119, 11th Pere Borrellas 125, 12 Matteo Grattarola 132 and 13th Alexz Wigg with a whopping 134.
In Junior action, it was once again Alex Ferrer ( Sherco) who lost 52, ahead of Pol Tarres (JTG) and Frances Moret (Mont) with young British hopeful Jack Sheppard ( Beta) in 4th.

The weather was showery, making the huge rocks in the old gold fields of this mining area near Victoria very slippery.

===========================================>

Weather in the valley, is supposed to be warm today, and my plan is to drive down to Summerland (Again) - but this time for a leisurely lunch with Pete, and to pick up my Beta Alp, which he took back from the Trial as I had no room in my van. - We will likely also zip up to the camp site for a final check to make sure there is no garbage left around the area.

============================================>

I see that it was Michael Shumacher ( Mercedes) who set the fastest time in qualifying for the Monaco GP today, but as he has a 5 spot grid penalty from an incident in Spain, he will start the race a few rows back - Mark Webber therefore inherits the pole position for Red Bull, although his team-mate and current World Champ Sebastian Vettel is down in 10th - Nico Rossberg (Mercedes) - starts 2nd with Lewis Hamilton 3rd (McLaren) - The race around the streets of the of the famous French City, is notorious for being hard to pass on, so expect to see a few cars in the wall tomorrow.

Good morning Trials Fans - bit late doing the blog today, due to another technical problem, ( caused by tons of people looking at the Outlaw Pics) - All is good now, and we are up & running again.

Some interesting emails and phone calls coming in this past few days, regarding the Trial, all very positive, which is always nice for the organizer - one question I was asked by a local rider yesterday, was did I make any money ! - I told him I would be happy to break even, but when I finally checked the finances this morning, I found I once again lost about $300 overall.( and we had 66 riders) - Not that I’m bitching - Pete and myself do this for love of the sport, and if you consider the time we put in, I guess the loss would add up to thousands of dollars, but that really isn’t what the Trials scene for us, is all about. - As most business folk know - Trials is a very small business and while making a small profit is important - nobody is getting rich that’s for sure.

==========================================>

On to other things and no news yet from Australia, where the World Trial will take place this weekend - James Dabill did post on facebook this morning saying that it was p***ing down - also some very big rock steps ( what else is new in World Trials)

Down South - There is a US National in Colorado this weekend - not sure how many Cannucks will be going down - Cody Webb (Beta) and Pat Smaze (Sherco) will be going head to head again in the Champ class.

===================================>

Sherco have just released details of their new Cabestany 300 Special - of course this was after our latest shipment was already on the water. - darn it!! - It does look sweet - pics can be seen on face-book, and I will see if I can add to the “What’s New” page - trouble is a lot of the info: I get, comes up on my second computer, and not being too savvy, I have a tough time transferring it. ( usually download to a cd)

====================================>

The weather is also causing some problems for the Formula One guys in France, where the Monaco GP goes Sunday - Jenson Button - has posted the fastest practice time so far.

======================================>

I see that Casey Stoner has announced that he will retire from Moto GP at the end of this year - the current World Champ says he’s just not enjoying it anymore - plus he now has a young family to consider.

=======================================>

Dougie Lampkin is taking flying lessons, and hopes to get his pilot’s license soon.

=========================================>

Check out all the specs on the beautiful new Cabestany Replica on the “What’s New” page

A cloudy morning in the Valley, but the forecast looks good for the weekend - the heavy rain on Monday/Tuesday will be good for the forest, which always gets tinder dry during the summer. - We sure lucked out with the weather last weekend, as it was perfect for both riding and camping - ( A bit chilly at night-time) - I finally got around to washing the Beta yesterday, and changing the air-filter - I hope everybody who rode at Summerland made this a priority after the event.

=====================================>
In health news, Pete is now feeling better and has some new pills to keep him fit - but the big surprise for me yesterday, was when Bob Work ( Ex Yamaha Canada Race Director) walked into my shop - I haven’t heard from Bob for a couple of months, and was a bit concerned as he usually emailed me jokes on a regular basis. - turned out he had to go in for open-heart surgery, when they found he had a defective artery since birth. - Glad to report that he is now back to his old ways, with that great sense of humor that kept us laughing at Yamaha during the 70’s.

=====================================>

The World Trials Circus is in Australia this weekend, for the very first time - first reports are that the venue near Victoria has large grippy rocks, but that rain is forecast, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. - The Aussies, like their Motor-sport, so the event should be well attended, - the Teams then fly on to Japan for the following week.

=====================================>

Formula One fans will be glued to the TV this weekend to watch the Monaco Grand Prix - the race around the houses, in the French City is one of the oldest and popular races on the Calendar, attracting huge crowds, with lots of multi-million dollar boats in the harbor.

=====================================>

Our second shipment of Beta’s has arrived, and in fact Ross Rathbone from the Shuswap, gave his new 300 Factory Replica a fairy-tale debut at the Outlaw, winning the Senior Inter class with only 6 points. - The Sherco’s should be in very shortly, and like the Betas, will get snapped up quickly, so if you are in the market, call me or email asap.

============================================>

Jimmy emailed to say he found a license plate on the road from the camp site - if you lost the front one from your vehicle contact me and I will put you in touch with him.

============================================>

more news as it happens >>>>>>>>>>>>>> check out those great pics on the gallery.

Well - The dust has pretty much settled on another great Outlaw Trial, and the emails are still coming in from people who had a wonderful weekend - Tony got back to Colorado, and mailed to say he thought the Trial was fantastic - having not ridden for a couple of years, he was a bit rusty, but improved on Sunday to claim the #1 Yamaha Cup Plaque. - Those bikes of his were worth the trip for us all to see.

The kids event went over really well both nights - thanks to the guys who helped make that a success - nothing like seeing those young smiling faces, and the little electric bikes are the answer for around the camp - soooo quiet.

Checking the results, I see that the scores were right in line for what I had planned for degree of difficulty for each class, - the Devil’s Staircase saw a few cleans and the advanced riders were also able to make it up now we have a log in the gap half way.

I’ve now posted all my pics from both days - they are in two separate albums - I had to re-do the modern when we had a slight technical problem - Bob Johns solved this very quickly, and I encourage anybody wanting to set up their own website to use his expertise.

=====================================>

In other news, it was a good weekend for Beta riders, as James Dabill took the win at the second round of the British Championship, and Becky Cook won the Ladies division - At the US National in California, Pat Smaze ( Sherco) won on day one, with Cody Webb (Beta) 2nd, but the order was reversed on Sunday with Cody taking the win, - Of course at our Outlaw Event, Beta riders took three of the five classes, with a sweep of the Advanced class.

======================================>

I just read that Conservation Officers were ticketing dirt bikes at Greenstone Mountain last weekend - this was where we held a couple of events many years ago - from the report I read it sounds like a cash grab, with the officers in question, showing a very poor attitude - time to wake up and do some lobbying.

Welcome back to the blog, Trials Fans - After a five day camp-out in Summerland for the Outlaw Trial, it’s time to catch up on all the news from around the world. However, before that, I will try to give readers an insight into just how great the 25th Anniversary Outlaw Trial really was.

The riders started to arrive at the Okanagan location on Thursday, and by Saturday the camp area was plugged pretty good. - Things kicked off with the Saturday Vintage Trial, and a total of 15 riders for the two classes. - Tony Down was up from Colorado, but unfortunately didn’t get to ride his beautiful Triumph cub, as it developed an oil leak - this left him with the choice of the Royal Enfield, or the very nice yellow & black Majesty - the Yam was the wise choice, as the 25 km loop would have been a challenge on the big bike.

We had just three riders for the “A” Class - but eleven for the “B” Class - the tricky sections we had laid out, consisted of everything to test the riders ability, from cambered turns, to rocky uphills - we even had a splash of water for the end - when they rode through the section we called the bird bath.

At the end of the day it was Don Doerksen, who took the A class win ahead of Bob Clark and Dave Bissenden, while the B class saw strong competition from the local Jagodic brothers on Honda reflex machines - the surprise winner turned out to be Rob Healy from Calgary on his Ty 250, which sounded like it was about to blow up, but somehow managed to hold together long enough to beat out Lawrence Jacodics and Mark ONeill. - interesting to note that both the “A” and “B” winners lost the same amount of points riding the different lines. -

Sunday dawned a bit cloudy, but perfect for Trials riding - With 40 sections on the Expert loop, riders were maybe a little apprehensive - and the sections were far from easy. - Once again we were out there with the camera to record some brilliant riding, and the new sections proved to be a test for everyone, but only the first sub-section at “Krash” remained uncleaned - we saw fantastic rides at “Grizzly Grotto” from eventual winner Brandon Wince, and also from Stan Bakgaard and Todd Nordin - many of the sections had famous names from the Scottish, like Creag Lundie and Devil’s Staircase, plus “Laggan” - all adding to the nostalgia of a Trial that is similar to the events held in the UK.

I must say that I was rather overwhelmed by the kind comments, and wonderful gifts to celebrate this long standing event, a big thankyou to the Fracy clan for the beautiful plaque, plus looking after all the sign up and results, to Harold and the rest of the ATRA gang, and Glenn Kemp - you really surprised me, and I thankyou for so much for being very thoughtful.

Without Pete Brown, I could never have put this all together, as we were out on the loop for at least a couple of months, cutting & hacking, which as the riders found out, was both interesting and fun. -there does come a time when you have to consider stopping, as old age takes it’s toll, but all I can say at this point is that, we tried, and I think succeeded in hosting one of the biggest Trials in Canada, and an event which one person referred to as definitely rating a “10″.

I have started to post pics on the gallery, but editing these takes many hours, so keep checking back - the results are as follows - congratulations to all who rode the event, including the small kiddies, - ( Thanks to Pete,Lee, Jay & Graham) - and finally thanks to Taff for making sure I got some food down me ,